Sixteen years ago to the minute, Eileen Victoria Viernes was born. She is the only one of my four children who arrived right on schedule. One was a day early, one was two days late and another was two weeks too early. Plus she is my only child who lives up to the family name: she was born on a Friday (Viernes is Friday in Spanish).

This is an incomplete family photograph, but you get the idea. The star of the evening is right in the middle; Lord knows how I managed to convince them to dress up properly for dinner!


Thank goodness for the tripod and self-timer, we were able to get these photos taken in our hotel room before we went down for dinner.

And then just the 3 kiddos. There were a few outtakes which have now been deleted, but this is as close to the best photo of the lot. They scrub up well, don’t they?

The birthday girl, in her hand-knitted scarf which she wore as a shrug to cover her shoulders. The dress was option #2 for the Senior Ball, originally her choice for the Prom but it didn’t come in blue.

Another photo opportunity was spotted by the lifts just before we headed downstairs. Good thing the hotel was quiet so we had the hallway to ourselves.

Notice anything here? We swapped shawls/scarves because she was worried about a wardrobe malfunction and my shawl had better coverage. I didn’t mind.

Eibee and Patrick after dinner. I think we were just finishing up our seconds, thirds for some, here. It was seafood night and I had my fill of salmon and lobster. Yum.

Surprise! Not. She knew of course that this was happening at some point. The restaurant staff were sweet to bring the cake out and sing along with us.

The cake was a soft, fluffy, yummy chocolate mousse. The fruits on top were sweet and juicy. We had a quarter of the cake and brought the rest back up to our rooms. No doubt someone will be digging into this for their midnight snack.

Oh yes we brought the tripod along! There’s a spot in there somewhere where Viel is supposed to be.

And we didn’t realize the camera was setup for multiple shots so a couple seconds later it captured us in our true state. Yikes!

Seriously though, happy birthday to my baby, Eileen Victoria. Sweet sixteen in every way. I love you. I am proud of you and I am so happy you are my daughter.